If there is such a thing as a “classic” credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (CSP) is it and it’s not hyperbole to say that it changed the world of credit card rewards when it was originally launched in 2009. Not only was it novel for having multiple spending category bonuses, it also offered the ability to earn flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points, allowing cardholders to transfer earnings to multiple travel partners. A lot has happened in the space over the last fifteen years and the Sapphire Preferred isn’t the unicorn that it once was. Given that, is it still a valuable card to have in your wallet?
Chase Sapphire Preferred Current Welcome Offer
| Card Offer |
|---|
60K points ⓘ Affiliate 60K after $4K spend in 3 months$95 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: There may be elevated offers available by applying in-branch A similar offer with the first year annual fee waived may be found in-branch. YMMV. |
Chase Sapphire Preferred Review
The Sapphire Preferred simply isn’t the “wow” product that it used to be. There’s a small army of cards that are more rewarding for travel and many that can equal or surpass its 3x earning on dining (for instance, the no annual fee Chase Freedom Flex). That said, although it may not make sense to use it as a spending workhorse, the card could still be worth having around as a means to keep access to Chase’s transfer partners AND to put travel spend on in order to take advantage of the excellent protections that it offers.
- Annual Fee: $95
- Authorized User Annual Fee: none
- Foreign Transaction Fee: None
- What points are worth: The Chase Sapphire Preferred earns Ultimate Rewards (UR). Our current Reasonable Redemption Values pegs them at 1.55 cents each.
- Best Use for Points: Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred to travel partners at a 1:1 ratio and this will almost certainly yield the most value. Our favorite transfer partner is Hyatt, but good value can had through airline partners as well; including Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue and British Airways Avios. CSP cardholders can also be redeem UR for travel through the Chase Portal at 1.25 cents each or use “Pay Yourself Back (PYB)” on certain spending categories at 1 cent each (the PYB program has lost much of its luster in the last year).
- Earning Categories:
- 5X Travel booked through Chase Portal
- 5x Lyft (through 3/2025)
- 3x on Dining, Streaming Services, and Online Grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and Wholesale Clubs).
- 2x Travel
- 1x everywhere else
- Credits:
- $50 Hotel Credit: Once/cardmember year, $50 back on hotels booked through Chase Travel.
- $15 quarterly Instacart (through 7/31/24)
- Additional Perks:
- 6 months free Instacart+ – Free delivery on orders over $35, 5% credit back on eligible pickup orders and reduced service fees.
- Free DoorDash Dashpass (through 2024)
- 10% Anniversary point bonus: Each account anniversary, “earn bonus points that equal 10% of your total spend in points” based on spend in your cardmember year.
Note: This adds an extra 0.1x to all of your spend. If you spend $25,000 during the year, you’ll get 25,000 x .1 = 2,500 bonus points. You do not get extra points based on bonus categories.
- Travel Protections:
- Auto Rental Coverage: Primary auto rental CDW (collision damage waiver). Provides reimbursement for theft and collision damage for rental cars in the U.S. and abroad.
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: Covers delays of more than 12 hours or that require an overnight stay. Cardholder and family are covered for up to $500 per ticket.
- Lost Luggage Reimbursement: Up to $3,000 per passenger.
- Baggage Delay Insurance: Covers baggage delays of over 6 hours, up to $100 a day for 5 days.
- Travel Accident Insurance: Accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.
- Purchase Protections:
- Extended Warranty: One additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less (US warranties only)
- Damage and Theft Protection: 120 days against damage or theft; up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account
- Who’s this card for? Folks who don’t want to pay the higher annual fee of the Sapphire Reserve or open a business card, but still want to keep access to Chase’s transfer partners and travel protections (like primary car rental insurance). Oftentimes, the Preferred will have a higher welcome offer than the Reserve, so even if that’s the card you want, it can be useful to start with the CSP and then product change to the ultra-premium card after a year.
- Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred a keeper? It’s necessary to have either the Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve in order to take advantage of the ability to transfer to Chase’s travel partners. Given that, I can see keeping this card if you can’t get good value out of the more expensive Sapphire Reserve and don’t want to open a business card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Pros and Cons
Pros
- Excellent travel protections for a $95 card, including primary rental car insurance
- Often has a better welcome offer than the Sapphire Reserve
- Only major transferable currency (outside of Bilt) that has Hyatt as a partner
- $50 hotel credit will be useful for some folks (although it requires booking through Chase, which will usually negate elite benefits and points earning).
- Points can be redeemed at 1.25 cents each for travel through the Chase Travel Portal
Cons
- 2x on travel and 3x on dining is ok, but it doesn’t stand out like it used to and there are better earners out there with the same annual fee (or less)
- Outside of the hotel credit and travel protections, there’s not much in the way of perks
- The Pay Yourself Back program is much less valuable that it used to be
- While everyone in these parts loves Hyatt, Ultimate Reward‘s airline transfer partners are less exciting than other programs
Chase Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Chase Transfer Ratio | Best Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| Hyatt | 1 to 1 | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth at least 2 cents each, but they’re sometimes worth far more. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| IHG | 1 to 1 | IHG dynamically prices their awards and sometimes offer very good value. IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business cards offer the fourth night free on award stays. |
| JetBlue | 1 to 1 | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1 to 1 | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 via BA | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1 to 1 | Award flights are fully refundable. Point values vary due to certain taxes not being charged on awards, but tend to average around 1.5 cents per point. |
| United MileagePlus | 1 to 1 | United offers free award changes and free cancelations. Like Avianca and Aeroplan, United never charges fuel surcharges for awards. Unfortunately, United charges many more miles for international first class awards. Good uses of miles include United's Excursionist Perk awards and (sometimes) dynamically priced United economy awards. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 | Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Chase Application Tips
- 5/24 Rule: You most likely will not get approved for a new card if you have opened 5 or more cards (with any bank) within the past 24 months. Most business cards do not count towards that five card total.
- 24 Month Rule: If you’ve previously had a card before, you can only get a welcome offer on that card again if you no longer have the card AND if it has been more than 24 months since you last received a welcome offer for that card. This rule does not apply to the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards (see below). There can be exceptions with some business cards.
- 48 Month Rule: If you’ve previously had either the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve cards, you can get the welcome offer for another Sapphire card only if you no longer have either card AND if it has been more than 48 months since you last received a welcome offer for the card.
- "Family" Rules: In addition to Sapphire cards' 48-month rule, Chase applies additional "family" rules to the Southwest cards. You're not eligible for the welcome offer on a personal Southwest card if you currently have one, or if you've received a welcome offer on any personal Southwest card within the last 24 months. This doesn't apply to business cards.
- 2 per month Rule: Most applicants are limited to 2 new cards per month.
- Marriott cards: Approval for any Marriott card is governed by a labyrinthine set of unintuitive rules. You can see the full eligibility chart here.
- Card Limits: Chase doesn't have a strict limit on the amount of cards that you can have, but it does place limits on the total amount of credit that they will issue you across all cards. Because of this, reconsideration can sometimes be successful by moving credit from one existing card to the new card that you want.
- Application Status: Call (888) 338-2586 to check your application status.
- Reconsideration: If denied, call (888) 270-2127 for personal cards, or (800) 453-9719 for business cards, and ask for your application to be reconsidered.
Related Cards
Ultimate Rewards Consumer Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
Ultimate Rewards Business Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
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Question: Let’s say I use the CSP card to pay for a shuttle from CUN to my resort in Tulum but did not use the card to book airfare or hotels (I used points), would this trip be covered by Chase travel insurance?
Only the shuttle would be covered by Chase travel insurance.
I have a question. When you book Southwest flights through the UR portal, do you get the 5x travel points from CSP AND your normal amount of Rapid Rewards points on the booking? So are you able to double dip and get the best of both worlds? Thanks!! I love this site.
Isn’t this how it works anytime you book any flight on any airline through basically any portal? IE If I book an American flight through the Capital One portal, I get the portal multiplier (5x if booking with the VentureX), but I still get AA miles if I attach my loyalty # to the reservation. I think the reason people still book directly with the airline (and miss out on the 5x here) is that it’s easier to deal directly with the airline if there are ever flight changes, cancellations, etc. than dealing with the portal as the “middle man”.
(Psst, the $15 Instacart credit for CSP is $15 per quarter, not monthly.)
Yep, this, and I don’t believe travel benefits are correct either. This article seems to mix up CSP with CSR a lot. Maybe wishful thinking – would it not be nice to have most of CSR benefits for 95/yr.
Which travel benefits do you see that are incorrect? It has very similar travel protections to the CSR, with the exceptions of some lower limits and longer delay tolerances in some instances.
You might have updated them already – I think trip delay and accident insurance were incorrect.
Well, glad you’re not seeing anything that’s incorrect now. I just double-checked both of those bullet points and they’re correct.
Thanks, fixed.